How did Bruce Springsteen’s guitar playing differ from the singer-songwriter style of his early recordings?

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Bruce Springsteen plays an acoustic guitar and sings into a microphone on stage at the New York Film Festival Spotlight Gala. — Bruce Springsteen American rock musician Bruce Springsteen performs at the New York Film Festival Spotlight Gala at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, 2025. The gala featured a screening of *Deliver Me from Nowhere* (2025), a biopic centering on the making of Springsteen's 1982 album *Nebraska*.

In his early recordings, Bruce Springsteen’s guitar playing was characterized by a range of styles, including dense power chord effects and straight 1950s rock and roll.1

However, to fit the specific singer-songwriter format required for his first two albums, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, this "spectacular" guitar work had to be downplayed.1